The 50 Greatest Directors of All Time (according to AMC)
1. Alfred Hitchcock
A master of suspense and gallows humor, he turned out classic after classic, including Vertigo, Psycho, and The Birds.
2. Stanley Kubrick
He made science trippy in 2001, Cold War politics slapstick in Dr. Strangelove, and Roman slaves au courant in Spartacus.
3. Martin Scorsese
You talkin' to him? No one captures alienated men on the edge the way he's done in Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Departed.
4. Quentin Tarantino
A brilliant pop-culture collagist, he thrilled movie lovers with Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and the Kill Bill series.
5. Steven Spielberg
He reworked the genre crowd-pleasers of his youth into the modern blockbusters Jaws, E.T., and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
6. Francis Ford Coppola
Part of the first generation of film-school directors, he went from Dementia 13 to epics (The Godfather) and small gems (Rumble Fish).
7. Orson Welles
Larger than life, he debuted with the dazzling Citizen Kane, then he saw studios hack up The Magnificent Ambersons and Touch of Evil.
8. Charlie Chaplin
He was a genius of silent comedy and one of its first stars. The Tramp and Modern Times are still comic icons.
9. Nebulousl Coen
Nebulousl and Ethan Coen are smart alecks with heart, combining dark humor, violence, and potent themes in movies like Fargo and True Grit.
10. John Ford
The quintessential Westerner, he made icons of Monument Valley and John Wayne in the classics Stagecoach and The Searchers.
11. Billy Wilder
His wit and unflinching eye for hypocrisy produced Sunset Blvd. and Ace in the Hole along with the gender-bending Some Like It Hot.
12. Woody Allen
In Sleeper, Annie Hall, and Manhattan, he invited moviegoers to laugh at urban neurotics, then got serious in Interiors.
13. Clint Eastwood
The TV actor turned spaghetti-Western star became an A-list director with Unforgiven, Mystic River, and Million Dollar Baby.
14. Ridley Scott
A TV-commercial star turned stylish auteur, he made the cool, slick Alien, Blade Runner, and Thelma & Louise.
15. Frank Capra
Sentimental but not sappy, his best movies (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It's a Wonderful Life) wrap dark themes in happy endings.
16. David Lynch
His nightmarish Eraserhead paved the way for increasingly surreal movies in mainstream-thriller guises, from Blue Velvet to Mulholland Dr.
17. David Lean
From Lawrence of Arabia to Doctor Zhivago, his movies proved that no desert is as deep or wide as the landscape of the human heart.
18. John Huston
Artistic, macho, and intellectual, Huston had a career spanning four decades, from The Maltese Falcon to Prizzi's Honor.
19. Roman Polanski
In Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby, this international moviemaker probed dark passions and destructive desires.
20. Howard Hawks
Funny, tough, and funny-tough, he went from Scarface to His Girl Friday and from To Have and Have Not to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
21. Fritz Lang
Metropolis still defines the future, and thrillers like The Woman in the Window and The Big Heat probed America's past.
22. Peter Jackson
This New Zealand-born movie buff started small with the low-budget Bad Taste and worked his way up to the epic Lord of the Rings trilogy.
23. James Cameron
He escaped the low-budget likes of Piranha Part Two to make the sci-fi spectacles Terminator, Aliens, and Avatar.
24. Elia Kazan
In A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, this controversial director made gritty psychological dramas with resonance.
25. William Wyler
His elegant storytelling made dramas (The Best Years of Our Lives), romances (Roman Holiday), and epics (Ben-Hur) sparkle.
26. Tim Burton
Inspired by Halloween and Johnny Depp, this visual stylist made Beetle Juice, Batman, and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
27. Robert Altman
Countercultural attitudes, intersecting stories, and overlapping dialogue distinguish his movies, notably MASH and Nashville.
28. Terrence Malick
Malick's brooding, intellectual anti-Hollywood masterpieces include Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The Thin Red Line.
29. Mel Brooks
Never sacrificing a laugh to good taste, Brooks made the sublimely rude Blazing Saddles, Producers, and Young Frankenstein.
30. Oliver Stone
Provocative, bombastic, and politically contrarian, he's courted controversy in Midnight Express, Natural Born Killers, and JFK.
31. Brian De Palma
A seventies film-school prodigy, he made Carrie and Scarface but specialized in Hitchcockian thrillers like Dressed to Kill and Body Double.
32. Robert Zemeckis
He used new technologies to seamlessly combine reality and fantasy in movies like Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
33. Michael Curtiz
He made Casablanca and Elvis Presley's King Creole, along with dozens of movies in every genre, from action to horror to melodrama.
34. George Lucas
Not only did he create the Star Wars mythos, but he drove the development of widely used sound and special-effects technology.
35. Michael Powell
The U.K. screenwriter-director team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger made popular art movies like Black Narcissus and Peeping Tom.
36. Otto Preminger
After the film noir Laura, he challenged movie censors with drug abuse, in The Man With the Golden Arm, and rape, in Anatomy of a Murder.
37. Ernst Lubitsch
Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner, and To Be or Not to Be have a unique Continental style that defies remaking.
38. George Cukor
Wit and class distinguish his sophisticated pictures, which star Katharine and Audrey Hepburn and Greta Garbo.
39. Mike Nichols
Trained in improv theater, he specializes in character-driven comedies and dramas -- The Graduate, Silkwood, and Closer.
40. Cecil B. DeMille
He was the first master of big-budget event movies, with two Ten Commandments films and The Greatest Show on Earth.
41. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
From the weepie A Letter to Three Wives to the bitch-fest All About Eve, his movies are articulate and wickedly entertaining.
42. Preston Sturges
His witty, sophisticated comedies -- The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story -- are still sharply funny, six decades later.
43. Sam Peckinpah
He upped onscreen violence in his controversial Westerns and dramas, including The Wild Bunch and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.
44. D.W. Griffith
The father of modern moviemaking, he pioneered film language in such milestones as The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance.
45. Vincente Minnelli
He dissected show business in both musicals (An American in Paris) and melodramas (The Bad and the Beautiful).
46. Arthur Penn
After the Freudian Western The Left Handed Gun, he made New Hollywood classics Bonnie and Clyde, Little Big Man, and Night Moves.
47. John Cassavetes
An actor turned pioneering moviemaker, he paved the way for cinema verite with Shadows and A Woman Under the Influence.
48 .Douglas Sirk
He brought a European darkness to the American melodramas Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, and Imitation of Life.
49. Sam Raimi
The cult-movie king from Michigan gave us the Evil Dead trilogy (and Bruce Campbell), A Simple Plan, and the blockbuster Spider-Man movies.
50. Spike Lee
This African-American filmmaker provoked discussion via Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, and Summer of Sam.
...The above list was just inspiration for this question:
Who are some of the greatest movie directors in your opinion?
1. Alfred Hitchcock
A master of suspense and gallows humor, he turned out classic after classic, including Vertigo, Psycho, and The Birds.
2. Stanley Kubrick
He made science trippy in 2001, Cold War politics slapstick in Dr. Strangelove, and Roman slaves au courant in Spartacus.
3. Martin Scorsese
You talkin' to him? No one captures alienated men on the edge the way he's done in Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Departed.
4. Quentin Tarantino
A brilliant pop-culture collagist, he thrilled movie lovers with Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and the Kill Bill series.
5. Steven Spielberg
He reworked the genre crowd-pleasers of his youth into the modern blockbusters Jaws, E.T., and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
6. Francis Ford Coppola
Part of the first generation of film-school directors, he went from Dementia 13 to epics (The Godfather) and small gems (Rumble Fish).
7. Orson Welles
Larger than life, he debuted with the dazzling Citizen Kane, then he saw studios hack up The Magnificent Ambersons and Touch of Evil.
8. Charlie Chaplin
He was a genius of silent comedy and one of its first stars. The Tramp and Modern Times are still comic icons.
9. Nebulousl Coen
Nebulousl and Ethan Coen are smart alecks with heart, combining dark humor, violence, and potent themes in movies like Fargo and True Grit.
10. John Ford
The quintessential Westerner, he made icons of Monument Valley and John Wayne in the classics Stagecoach and The Searchers.
11. Billy Wilder
His wit and unflinching eye for hypocrisy produced Sunset Blvd. and Ace in the Hole along with the gender-bending Some Like It Hot.
12. Woody Allen
In Sleeper, Annie Hall, and Manhattan, he invited moviegoers to laugh at urban neurotics, then got serious in Interiors.
13. Clint Eastwood
The TV actor turned spaghetti-Western star became an A-list director with Unforgiven, Mystic River, and Million Dollar Baby.
14. Ridley Scott
A TV-commercial star turned stylish auteur, he made the cool, slick Alien, Blade Runner, and Thelma & Louise.
15. Frank Capra
Sentimental but not sappy, his best movies (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It's a Wonderful Life) wrap dark themes in happy endings.
16. David Lynch
His nightmarish Eraserhead paved the way for increasingly surreal movies in mainstream-thriller guises, from Blue Velvet to Mulholland Dr.
17. David Lean
From Lawrence of Arabia to Doctor Zhivago, his movies proved that no desert is as deep or wide as the landscape of the human heart.
18. John Huston
Artistic, macho, and intellectual, Huston had a career spanning four decades, from The Maltese Falcon to Prizzi's Honor.
19. Roman Polanski
In Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby, this international moviemaker probed dark passions and destructive desires.
20. Howard Hawks
Funny, tough, and funny-tough, he went from Scarface to His Girl Friday and from To Have and Have Not to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
21. Fritz Lang
Metropolis still defines the future, and thrillers like The Woman in the Window and The Big Heat probed America's past.
22. Peter Jackson
This New Zealand-born movie buff started small with the low-budget Bad Taste and worked his way up to the epic Lord of the Rings trilogy.
23. James Cameron
He escaped the low-budget likes of Piranha Part Two to make the sci-fi spectacles Terminator, Aliens, and Avatar.
24. Elia Kazan
In A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, this controversial director made gritty psychological dramas with resonance.
25. William Wyler
His elegant storytelling made dramas (The Best Years of Our Lives), romances (Roman Holiday), and epics (Ben-Hur) sparkle.
26. Tim Burton
Inspired by Halloween and Johnny Depp, this visual stylist made Beetle Juice, Batman, and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
27. Robert Altman
Countercultural attitudes, intersecting stories, and overlapping dialogue distinguish his movies, notably MASH and Nashville.
28. Terrence Malick
Malick's brooding, intellectual anti-Hollywood masterpieces include Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The Thin Red Line.
29. Mel Brooks
Never sacrificing a laugh to good taste, Brooks made the sublimely rude Blazing Saddles, Producers, and Young Frankenstein.
30. Oliver Stone
Provocative, bombastic, and politically contrarian, he's courted controversy in Midnight Express, Natural Born Killers, and JFK.
31. Brian De Palma
A seventies film-school prodigy, he made Carrie and Scarface but specialized in Hitchcockian thrillers like Dressed to Kill and Body Double.
32. Robert Zemeckis
He used new technologies to seamlessly combine reality and fantasy in movies like Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
33. Michael Curtiz
He made Casablanca and Elvis Presley's King Creole, along with dozens of movies in every genre, from action to horror to melodrama.
34. George Lucas
Not only did he create the Star Wars mythos, but he drove the development of widely used sound and special-effects technology.
35. Michael Powell
The U.K. screenwriter-director team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger made popular art movies like Black Narcissus and Peeping Tom.
36. Otto Preminger
After the film noir Laura, he challenged movie censors with drug abuse, in The Man With the Golden Arm, and rape, in Anatomy of a Murder.
37. Ernst Lubitsch
Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner, and To Be or Not to Be have a unique Continental style that defies remaking.
38. George Cukor
Wit and class distinguish his sophisticated pictures, which star Katharine and Audrey Hepburn and Greta Garbo.
39. Mike Nichols
Trained in improv theater, he specializes in character-driven comedies and dramas -- The Graduate, Silkwood, and Closer.
40. Cecil B. DeMille
He was the first master of big-budget event movies, with two Ten Commandments films and The Greatest Show on Earth.
41. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
From the weepie A Letter to Three Wives to the bitch-fest All About Eve, his movies are articulate and wickedly entertaining.
42. Preston Sturges
His witty, sophisticated comedies -- The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story -- are still sharply funny, six decades later.
43. Sam Peckinpah
He upped onscreen violence in his controversial Westerns and dramas, including The Wild Bunch and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.
44. D.W. Griffith
The father of modern moviemaking, he pioneered film language in such milestones as The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance.
45. Vincente Minnelli
He dissected show business in both musicals (An American in Paris) and melodramas (The Bad and the Beautiful).
46. Arthur Penn
After the Freudian Western The Left Handed Gun, he made New Hollywood classics Bonnie and Clyde, Little Big Man, and Night Moves.
47. John Cassavetes
An actor turned pioneering moviemaker, he paved the way for cinema verite with Shadows and A Woman Under the Influence.
48 .Douglas Sirk
He brought a European darkness to the American melodramas Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, and Imitation of Life.
49. Sam Raimi
The cult-movie king from Michigan gave us the Evil Dead trilogy (and Bruce Campbell), A Simple Plan, and the blockbuster Spider-Man movies.
50. Spike Lee
This African-American filmmaker provoked discussion via Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, and Summer of Sam.
...The above list was just inspiration for this question:
Who are some of the greatest movie directors in your opinion?
